Tidbits – Part 10: The Cholesterol Game

CHOLESTEROL DOES NOT CAUSE HEART DISEASE!

It’s like saying ants cause picnics! When artery walls are damaged from scarring and inflammation, the body sends cholesterol to the area to act as a healing agent. Cholesterol is actually made in the liver, it belongs in your body, and performs many important functions. The real question is, what is causing the arteries to inflame? And the answer is… sugar! The cause of heart and artery disease, by and large, is sugar–and white flour, which turns to sugar in the stomach.

BAD SCIENCE

Some very bad science kicked off the whole cholesterol panic back in 1953. An influential nutrition scientist named Ancel Keys wrote a paper wherein he analyzed data from 6 countries regarding the relationship between saturated fat (food high in cholesterol) and death from heart disease. He concluded that death from heart disease was highest in countries that ate the most saturated fat.

Unfortunately…….data of this nature was available from 22 countries! Ancel Keys cherry-picked the countries he used for his study to arrive at his hoped-for results. But, when the data from all 22 countries were taken in, the saturated fat hypothesis fell flat. Yet somehow, the cholesterol-causes-heart-disease notion sprouted wings and took flight! Ever since then, we’ve made this unfounded and unproven “science” the cornerstone for what we eat and what medical advice we take, which now includes the most profitable class of drugs on the planet–the statin cholesterol-lowering drugs, which 1 out of 4 Americans over 45 is now on!

WHAT’S WRONG WITH STATINS?

First, they lower cholesterol, which is a totally unnecessary procedure (except for maybe 1% of the population with a genetic inability to regulate cholesterol) but second is the way in which they do it! They block an enzyme in the liver, HMG-CoA, which is a precursor to CoQ10, an enzyme needed for heart health! If you’re taking statins, you must supplement with CoQ10!

CoQ10

What do we need CoQ10 for? Every cell in your body needs CoQ10 for energy production! The most energy-demanding organ in your body is your heart. Depleting your body’s main source of cellular energy by taking statins is like punching yourself in the eye for the good of your vision–it makes absolutely no sense! It’s bad enough that as we age, our ability to produce CoQ10 declines anyway; but, to speed up this inevitability by taking statins is not only self-defeating but exposes the way drug companies go about making a medicine; namely, the narrowest of outcomes is sought after; in this case, simply stopping the liver from making cholesterol, never mind the down-stream or remote effects that such an undertaking has.

WHAT ELSE DO STATINS DO BESIDES INTERFERING WITH CoQ10?

Statin side effects often take a long time to show up, and by then it doesn’t occur to the average person that the drug is causing this “new” problem. (And I object to the term “side effect”, as though it’s without consequence; we should call these things what they are– “effects”.) Here are the effects of statins:

1. Memory loss

2. Neuropathy

3. Anemia

4. Acidosis

5. Frequent fevers

6. Cataracts

7. Sexual dysfunction

8. Increased risk of cancer

9. Immune system depression

10. Degenerative muscle tissue condition

11. Liver dysfunction

12. Birth defects

13. Acute kidney failure

14. Muscle weakness and pains

15. Hormonal imbalances

16. Diabetes

Let me just enlarge on this last point. When you eat a meal that’s high in sugar, starches and grains, some of the excess sugar goes to the liver which stores it as cholesterol and triglycerides. With statins preventing your liver from making cholesterol, the liver spits the sugar back out into your blood stream; hence, the diabetes. (How this gets past the FDA, I don’t know.)

WHAT DO WE NEED CHOLESTEROL FOR?

1. The production of cell membranes

2. The production of sex hormones and stress hormones

3. The production of Vitamin D

4. The production of bile acids (to digest fat)

5. Normal neurological function

6. Memory retention

WHAT DOES CHOLESTEROL PROTECT AGAINST?

1. Cancer

2. Senility

3. Parkinsons Disease

4. Hormonal imbalances

5. Stroke

6. Depression

7. Suicidal impulses

8. Violent behavior

ARE THERE ANY INDIGENOUS PEOPLES THRIVING ON SATURATED FATS?

Funny you should ask! The Maasai people of Kenya and Tanzania:

Saturated fat is 66% of their diet. They eat meat, milk, and cattle blood.

The Inuit Eskimos!

Saturated fat is 75% of their diet. They eat whale meat and whale blubber.

Say hello to the Rendille people of Kenya…

Saturated fat is 63% of their diet. They eat meat and drink blood and camel’s milk.

In fact, saturated fat is essential for a healthy diet. Breast milk is 54% saturated fat, so, here’s another indigenous group of people living on a high cholesterol diet:

babies.

WHAT YOU NEED SATURATED FAT FOR

You need saturated fat for your:

1. cell membranes

2. heart

3. liver

4. lungs

5. assimilation of fat-soluble vitamins like A, D and E.

6. bones

7. hormones

You also need fat in your diet in order to feel full! A fatty meal stays with you, slows down your digestion so you’re not hungry again in an hour!

HOW CAN I TELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE GOOD FATS AND THE BAD?

Just stop buying processed food and you’ll be fine!

Real food looks like this:

You make it yourself.

You must remember that the whole “saturated fat is OK” idea is predicated on the understanding that you’re making your food yourself and you’re buying organic! If you buy it from McDonald’s or some similar place, you’re buying animal products fed junk food, female hormones and antibiotics. Right before our eyes, food production was taken over by factories and corporations; it’s not safe anymore, it’s become a crass commercial enterprise!

When you buy meat, you have to be careful! Buy it from a farmer’s market, health food store, Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s or similar place. The meat should specify “grass fed” or “organic”. In fact, if a food package has a corporate label on it, don’t buy it.

PROCESSED FOODS ARE FULL OF TRANS FATS!

What’s that?

Funny you should ask! Trans fats are formed when hydrogen is added to vegetable oil to make it a solid so you can have things like margarine and shortening. When you see “Partially hydrogenated oil” on a food label, drop it and run like a rabbit! You have to start reading labels! Trans fats have a longer SHELF LIFE than other foods, and hence, can sit there in the market indefinitely which benefits the food manufacturer, but, not you! You can find trans fats in donuts, fried chicken, French fries, cookies, crackers, cakes…. A donut is roughly 40% trans fat and these are the fats that clog your arteries! Anyone who’s replaced butter with margarine and “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter”, thinking that they’re protecting their heart, should correct this mistake immediately!

If you really want to take something for your cholesterol, make it this:

This is Sufficient-C, high dose vitamin C which contains L-Lysine, an amino acid, which, according to Dr. Linus Pauling, is the combination that clears cholesterol out of your arteries! www.SufficientC.com

About the author

Elaine Lewis

Elaine Lewis, D.Hom., C.Hom.
Elaine is a passionate homeopath, helping people offline as well as online. Contact her at LEWRA@aol.com Elaine is a graduate of Robin Murphy's Hahnemann Academy of North America and author of many articles on homeopathy including her monthly feature in the Hpathy ezine, "The Quiz". Visit her website at: http://elainelewis.hpathy.com/ and TheSilhouettes.org